Lynch Wins Dist. 19 Republican Primary

Deutch Enjoys Political Advantage For Finale

After a long night of election uncertainty, Republican Edward Lynch emerged Wednesday as the victor in the special congressional primary, eking out a narrow win over Joe Budd.

Wednesday morning it seemed like a list of possibilities could keep the outcome in doubt even longer.

A technical glitch in Palm Beach County kept questions about the final vote tally lingering into the pre-dawn hours. Then there was talk of a mandatory recount because the margin of victory was so narrow. Some spoke - erroneously - of a runoff.

And, with no Republican given much of a chance of actually winning the general election April 13, some wondered why it even mattered.

Wednesday, it appeared that only 46 votes separated Lynch and Joe Budd. Lynch had 3,320 to Budd's 3,274. Curt Price was a distant third with 1,566 votes.

But even that might change - Budd started the day saying he hoped that provisional ballots, cast by people whose voting status is questioned at the polls, could close the gap. Military absentee ballots aren't due until 10 days after an election. If the race is within 0.5 percent, state law provides for a recount.

By Wednesday afternoon, however, Budd concluded he wouldn't get that close and conceded.

The Democratic race, on the other hand, was a runaway from the outset. Ted Deutch crushed Ben Graber and is widely considered the favorite to fill the seat left vacant by U.S. Rep. Robert Wexler's resignation.

"It looks sort of like the coronation for Deutch," said Martin Sweet, a political scientist at Florida Atlantic University's Honors College. "The Republican Party looks pretty fractured within that district. Given all that, I would be exceptionally shocked if anything happens other than Deutch in a cakewalk."

But Lynch remains convinced he can do what Graber couldn't, even though registered Democrats outnumber Republicans 2 to 1 in the district. He draws inspiration from Republican Scott Brown's U.S. Senate victory last month in overwhelmingly Democratic Massachusetts.

Broward Democratic Chairman Mitch Ceasar said there's "a greater likelihood of hell freezing over" than a Republican winning the April contest. "The district will be immune from Massachusetts-itis."

Moreover, if there is the kind of conservative anger that's gotten attention with the rise of the tea party movement, Sweet and Budd said it may be split between the Republican nominee and the third candidate in the race, Jim McCormick, running with no party affiliation.